This report of Virginia medical malpractice is tragically familiar and completely preventable. Its been three years since I represented the son and daughter of a woman diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis, or a blood clot in her leg, after a sonogram was performed and after several visits to her primary care doctor over several weeks. The radiologist who diagnosed the DVT called the referring primary care doctor to tell him, got put on hold and hung up. To read the Virginia Supreme Court decision in that case (which was ultimately settled), go to http://www.donahoekearney.com/library/

The primary doctor's office got the report and filed it in the patient's chart, but nobody called the patient. She died of a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot that travels to the lung) a few days later.

A Virginia jury just found a doctor responsible for medical malpractice when he never told his 24 year old patient, who had been in to see him twice for chest pain, a cough and vomiting blood, that his x-ray diagnosed pneumonia. He died two days later.

Simple patient safety steps would have prevented these deaths.williams%20appeal.pdf

Like all of us - bus drivers, accountants, construction workers, lawyers, we all have rules to follow. And nurses, doctors, hospital techs, specialists, consultants are no different. Everyone in healthcare has rules to follow - rules that are in place to keep patients safe.

So if you think someone you know was seriously injured because someone in healthcare didn't follow the rules, or a hospital didn't have a system to make sure the right thing was done, call us or send us a confidential email. We'll give you as much information as we can about preventable medical mistakes in D.C., Maryland or Virginia and holding the healthcare system accountable for breaking the rules.

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